Millions of additional travelers could be affected by a new plan to ban laptops, tablets and other large electronic devices from the cabins of trans-Atlantic flights, a move U.S. and European security officials have been discussing in recent days.

The proposal would expand an existing ban implemented in March that applies to U.S.-bound flights from 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Here is what you need to know:

Why is the ban needed?

Homeland Security officials say terrorists are trying to smuggle explosives onto planes in “various consumer items,” and experts say explosives could be concealed within the electronics and battery compartments of consumer devices. The devices are still allowed to be placed in checked baggage.

What about the threat of items in the cargo hold?

The British Airline Pilots’ Association says it’s worried this ban could lead to more accidental fires in cargo holds, posing a greater risk than that of terrorism. Spare lithium batteries are already banned from cargo holds over concerns that they can cause intense, fast-growing fires without being seen belowdecks, and accidental fires cased by lithium batteries have been cited in two crashes, the association said.

Have bombs been concealed in electronic devices before?

Yes. On June 23, 1985, a bomb concealed inside a radio inside a checked bag exploded onboard an Air India flight from Montreal to London while over Irish airspace, killing all 329 people aboard. And Pam Am Flight 103 was blown up by terrorists on Dec. 21, 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland shortly after takeoff. A bomb concealed inside a tape recorder inside checked luggage brought the plane down, killing 259 people aboard, along with 11 people on the ground.

What airports are affected?

Right now, the ban applies only to U.S.-bound flights from 10 foreign airports. They are:

The Financial Times cited a senior EU diplomat as follows: “When you have a kettle and you are making porridge, you cannot make it thicker in one corner of the kettle. It is the same with flight security. Why should [EU-US] flights be restricted and more secure than the ones to Thailand or Egypt?”

Fortunately, common sense ruled. How long that lasts remains to be seen.

US intelligence and law enforcement agencies believe that ISIS and other terrorist organizations have developed innovative ways to plant explosives in electronic devices that FBI testing shows can evade some commonly used airport security screening methods, CNN has learned.

Heightening the concern is US intelligence suggesting that terrorists have obtained sophisticated airport security equipment to test how to effectively conceal explosives in laptops and other electronic devices. The intelligence, gathered in the last several months, played a significant role in the Trump administration’s decision to prohibit travelers flying out of 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa from carrying laptops and other large electronic devices aboard planes.

Aviation security expert Robert Liscouski, a former Homeland Security assistant secretary for infrastructure protection, said limiting the ban to eight countries makes sense based on the capability and locations of terrorist groups.

When the electronics ban was announced, US officials told CNN they were concerned that terrorists had developed ways to hide explosives in battery compartments. But the new intelligence makes clear that the bomb-makers working for ISIS and other groups have become sophisticated enough to hide the explosives while ensuring a laptop would function long enough to get past screeners. Though advanced in design, FBI testing found that the laptops could be modified using common household tools.

Intelligence officials received a wake-up call in February 2016, when an operative from al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate in Somali, detonated a laptop bomb on a Daallo Airlines flight from Mogadishu to Djibouti. The explosives were hidden in a part of the laptop where bomb-makers had removed a DVD drive, according to investigators. Airport workers helped smuggle the bomb on the plane after it passed through an X-ray machine. In that case, the bomber was blown out of the airplane but the aircraft was able to make an emergency landing. However, experts have said the bomb would have been more devastating had the plane reached cruising altitude.

The military and intelligence community has grown increasingly concerned in the last few months about the potential ability of terror groups to get bombs on board airplanes, according to several US officials. The US has been tracking specific intelligence from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al Qaeda in Syria and ISIS, officials said.

The group with the greatest level of bomb-making expertise is al Qaeda in Yemen. Its master bomb-maker, Ibrahim al Asiri, has worked for years on designing explosive devices that can be hidden on bodies or in items such as printer cartridges. Since 2014, US officials have been concerned that Asiri’s expertise had migrated to other groups.

Brussels vs Trump

The Brussels solution would be to ban all laptops. Trump’s solution was a selective ban, far more practical.

What needs to happen is to figure out why we cannot detect bombs in laptops.

Top Secret?

Finally, the recent bruhaha regarding Trump was that he shared “Top Secret” information with Russia.

That alleged “Top Secret” information was in regards to ISIS having plans to use laptop bombs on airplanes. Russia likely knew everything Trump stated.

Media Witch Hunt

As long as Trump did not disclose sources, we should all be thankful Trump shared this information with Russia.

Instead, we see a media witch hunt and increased calls for impeachment. For more on the Trump Witch hunt please see …

Related

About Mish

Post navigation

Disclaimer: The content on this site is provided as general information only and should not be taken as investment advice. All site content, including advertisements, shall not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security or financial instrument, or to participate in any particular trading or investment strategy. The ideas expressed on this site are solely the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the opinions of sponsors or firms affiliated with the author(s). The author may or may not have a position in any company or advertiser referenced above. Any action that you take as a result of information, analysis, or advertisement on this site is ultimately your responsibility. Consult your investment adviser before making any investment decisions.

58 thoughts on “Total Airplane Laptop Ban Coming or Not? What are the Issues?”

I’m not sure how Trump’s stance is more practical. If ISIS has figured out how to hide a bomb in a laptop using common household tools, then banning them from incoming flights from select ‘Muslim’ airports is not helpful. Clearly the instructions can be disseminated to a terrorist outside the area with the ban and then it would be easy to target an airline since anyone not taking off from a banned airport would essentially be a lone sheep. Or they could fly out of a banned airport with the laptop/bomb in checked baggage then take it out and fly with it from an ‘approved safe’ airport as a carryon. Or why not simply let the bomb go off in the checked baggage? There you could stash several laptop/bombs ensuring an explosion powerful enough to bring down the plane.

Read it again, Brian. They do put bombs in checked luggage. That’s why they x-ray and inspect checked luggage. BTW the lone terrorist outside the banned airport area is a lone WOLF, not a lone sheep. The sheep are the victims.

Sounds like there are few choices, but increased risk for airline passengers. The whole idea that people can check laptops etc in their checked luggage makes the laptop ban in cabin seem a bit silly. This has no real answer. The chaos and expense caused by a total ban is very large. We have spent billions and billions and billions on “security measures” since 911 and this problem seems to elude everyone. Why??

This is a Muslim problem. Those who do not fix the problem become part of the problem. Muslim can deny terrorists claim Islam as their motivation and regardless that declaration implicates all Muslims. It is up to THEM to stop the corruption and abuse of their religion. If they fail, they suffer the consequences.
There were many Germans who did not embrace Nazism, yet in war we did not discriminate, questioning each German before bombing them to ensure they were indeed a Nazi supporter. Nazis were defeated when Germans stopped supporting them.
Radical Islam will only be defeated when MUSLIMS stop supporting them, something they have failed to do.
The longer we deny that ISLAM has a problem, IS a problem, the longer this lasts. Muslims have to fix it and we obviously will need to apply pressure for that to happen.

I think it is time to admit the TSA is causing more problems than they are [NOT] solving.

It is a matter of public record that the TSA has not stopped a single terrorist. Not one. Its a multi-billion dollar failure that creates unnecessary costs without even addressing any need.

As for enhancing security? Please. Anyone who wants to kill a lot of people is going to target the hundreds of people standing in the TSA line wearing no shoes, no coats, everything emptied from their pockets… and we are crammed into a small space, nice and tight so a single bomb would get the most people.

The TSA might as well be working with terrorist groups — corralling and cramming lots of highly exposed people into one tempting target. Why blow up a plane when they can kill more people in a TSA line instead?

Its high time government employees started putting the country first. The NSA is not going to have many wins against foreign terrorists when they are busy spying on US citizens. And the TSA is so busy making themselves feel important that they actually make the traveling public LESS safe.

We need better security, not more self-important bureaucrats.

PS — putting lots of lithium-ion batteries into the cargo hold of planes is a great way to make sure the plane gets blown out of the air. Its a well known problem that anyone following airline security should know. If the TSA decides to ban all laptops, a battery is going to catch fire (no terrorism required) and people will be killed by the TSA’s incompetence. Will the TSA employees accept responsibility for their negligent homicide? Because that is what it will be.

PPS — want to make planes safer and fix the TSA? Make Congress and Pentagon officers fly commercial instead of flying everywhere in “private” Gulfstream jets (paid for by taxpayers). Real leaders lead by example, not by flying in separate planes, with DSS guards driving armored Suburbans to and from the airport.

Really you don’t want the hold full of the things; once a fire starts down there there is no way to put it out and it will spread from one battery to another. The word should get out about this so that people will tell their representatives that they do not want to be flying on a plane that has been made dangerous in that way.

Early 90s , when I was a bit less ‘experienced’ than today, a Palestinian couple chatted me into taking a boxed radio player through customs in Athens to save duties, on a flight from Cyprus. I backed out just before the customs gate. They wanted me to stop over at their place in Athens during the two hour wait of mine for a connecting flight to Oz, barely possible…they dissapeared after I refused to take the radio. I mentioned it to security but the guard did not react except to ask if I had taken it. Not long later I see warnings in paper of bomb plot by radio, to beware, picture looked like on the box they had. I dunno… I dunno…

Why stop with laptops, let’s stop iPads, notepads and phones. No electronic devices allowed on the plane. You must put them in your stowed luggage to allow TSA workers to browse and keep the best items. This will force everyone to watch the in flight movie and heaven forbid, talk to each other.

The problem is that having a bunch of lithium batteries in the hold of a plane is very dangerous (http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a17824/faa-lithium-ion-batteries/). They catch fire easily, the fire spreads from one battery to another, and if they are in the hold the fire can’t be put out. It is much easier to put out a fire in the passenger part of a plane, than in the hold.

I’m happy enough with a couple of books, some crossword puzzles, and my clamshell phone. But I don’t see that as becoming the new normal.

What you are proposing — banning all electronic devices including cell phones — sounds a lot like the unabomber’s manifesto. Its just not practical

If airlines are going to ban all salespersons and consultants (laptops, tablets, etc for presentations) and everyone with a cell phone (lots of grandma’s carry cell phones now) … they would pretty much eliminate their entire customer list.

Not for nothing, but think of the impact on tax collection and GDP if the government were to ban all sales calls and all consultants and all grandmothers…

Sounds like the end of business travel for a good many individuals who must travel to Europe and I would expect to see a world wide ban to happen in one or two years. On the other hand I would love to smaller steam ships running between the east coast of the Us and Europe. Granted, one would take four or five days transit crossing the Atlantic but it would be far easier on the body. The best one can do is the QEII I believe and the dates are not exactly convenient. Would love to see something about half that size using technology to cut the time to three days, maybe two and a half.

Unlikely. Couple of dents perhaps sink ship plate is carbon steel and not aluminum. There might be more risk of high jacking but there would be no cheap births and hijackers never fly first class or even business class.

But the technology exists its the demand that is lacking. Smaller craft that can carry 500 comfortable using power equipment and hydra-foils could reach speeds of 40 knots per hour while remaining stable and cut the crossing by two days.. If it only costs me somewhat less than a thousand to take a ship and arrive at Hampton or Calais, I would do it.

How about a better Terrorist Detection System?
Analyze the known terrorist attacks and the known terrorists (they do advertise themselves) and see if we can find any common characteristics. We could then screen these individuals rather than everyone.
Any ideas as to some common characteristics?

You’ve spent too much time in progressive indoctrination camps. Rational beings are not catrgorizable into fixed categories where some categories carries greater privilege than others. Never have been, never will be. Whomever has traits categorized as harassable, will just morph into someone who does not. And “analyzing” people, never has been, never will be anything but shorthand for being a useless charlatan.

“Homeland Security officials say terrorists are trying to smuggle explosives onto planes in “various consumer items,” and experts say explosives could be concealed within the electronics and battery compartments of consumer devices. The devices are still allowed to be placed in checked baggage.”

According to tests of their security, TSA already misses 95% of test items as it is. Also, unless body cavity searches becomes routine…

The Russians also lost an airliner, over Egypt if I recall, to some similar device, so we and they have a common interest. Of course, since we banned laptops in some places some weeks ago, the other side probably has figured out that we know what they are allegedly doing.

Knowing now what I do about our shady intelligence agencies , I question the ability of that amount of explosives to break these large aircraft apart in these instances. So quickly the pilots can’t even mayday.

Overwhelmingly, the people at risk from an airplane blowing up, are those who voluntarily board the plane.

Hence, there is exactly not one defensible reason why airlines could not schedule no-laptops-allowed flights, alongside laptops-allowed ones, and let individual people make their own decisions wrt the risk-benefit tradeoff inherent in which class of plane to book. And whether the potential extra cost of compensating a pilot and crew for the added risk laptops pose via increased ticket prices, is worth it to them. Not one.

Lithium Ion batteries are the reason. Pile a bunch of them in the baggage hold of airplanes and one of those planes will fall from the sky due to a natural battery fire before a terrorist attack occurs. Math.

My goal is to never fly in a commercial jet for the rest of my life. Who needs the hassle? If I can’t get to where I’m going by car or boat – it’s not worth the trouble. I’ve traveled more than enough in my day and slept in way too many hotel beds that I care to remember. Home sweet home is where I want to be. I don’t think I could handle it if some stewardess instructed me to give up the seat that I paid for and exit the flight because the airlines oversold it. I’m afraid they’d have to drag me down the center aisle just like that Chinese doctor. There comes a point when a man out of principle just has to say ‘f off’. Otherwise you’re not really a man.

So I’ll be standing on the sidelines watching you folks go to battle. Life’s too short. The smartest way for me to fight ’em is to not give them my money.

There will never be 100% security. It’s just as easy to hide a bomb by pushing it up your behind as it is within a laptop. And it’s definitely not going to be detected by the body scanners. So if they would have that intelligence information that terrorists are planning an attack using that method, would they mandate rectal exams for everyone by a friendly TSA officer?

Mish , normally I agree that homeland security has hootenanny out of hand on air travel. However most of these airplanes are flying by wire it’s not beyond the reAlm of possibility that a lone terrorist on a single plane or multiple terrorist with computers some how take over a plane or perhaps fatally damage the plane if proper precautions were not taken by the airplane oporator , manufacturer etc. given that I’m very glad the President shared the. Information and that homeland security issued warnings and bands. I’m not sure how money lost by travers play into it given the screeming and finger pointing at the President and his administration. Ounce of prevention vs air catastrophe?

Other than banning everything but clothes, I fail to see how security can work if it cannot detect bombs. They could hide one in cameras or anything of the like. I fail to see why directing computers to the hold would do. Have several computers go through and once all loaded to the hilt.
If they cannot find bombs in computers, they cannot find them in cameras or anything else.

.
Hence, there is exactly not one defensible reason why airlines could not schedule no-laptops-allowed flights, alongside laptops-allowed ones, and let individual people make their own decisions wrt the risk-benefit tradeoff inherent in which class of plane to book.

Excuse me
What happens when people get off the plane and need their laptop?
Hence, there is exactly not one defensible reason why airlines could not schedule no-laptops-allowed flights, alongside laptops-allowed ones, and let individual people make their own decisions wrt the risk-benefit tradeoff inherent in which class of plane to book.

Excuse me, What happens when people have data on their laptop that is not on the airline computer?
What happens when people have a different OS and applications than the ones the airline supplies?
What happens when the fear becomes cameras and other equipment?

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email. Note: You'll have to confirm your address after sign-up. Please check your spam folder if you do not receive a confirmation email.